The volume of imported cherries greatly increased in 2017, and the price dropped by half in comparison with 2016. The price of cherries started to go down as quality declined, which in turn was the result of issues with the harvest prior to market retail. It looks like these circumstances are not likely to change in 2018. A springtime "cold spell" badly damaged cherries throughout the country. In some places the entire crop failed.
Large cherries
Domestic large cherries started to enter the market as early as February. Under regular conditions, the cherry price at the start of the season reaches 120 yuan [19.12 USD] per 0.5 kg. At that time the price of imported cherries was still reasonable, but the quality was much lower than for domestic cherries.
Yantai is the largest cherry production area in China. Yantai had a surface area of 20,533 hectares devoted to cherry production in 2016. The annual production reached 218 thousand tons, which accounted for 60% of national cherry production. When cherries had just arrived on the market, their wholesale price reached 120 yuan [19.12 USD] per 0.5 kg, but in a brief period the price dropped to an average of 40 yuan [6.37 USD] per 0.5 kg. This price is 25% lower than the price of cherries in the same period in 2016. The price of large cherries is low because the production volume increased and imported cherries flooded the market.
Source: iFreshFair